Digital Commons Network^™

Optimizing For Broader Discoverability: Metadata With Web Crawlers And Oai Harvesters In Mind, Cheryl D. Walters, Sandra Mcintyre

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Wondering how to get your CONTENTdm resources featured more in Google, OAIster, and other web crawlers and harvesters? The Mountain West Digital Library regularly harvests nine CONTENTdm repositories in Utah and Nevada, along with two other Open Archives Initiatives (OAI) repositories. The result is a central regional index with over 270,000 records representing 1.2 million digital files, accessible via search and browse in an online portal at http://mwdl.org. Members of the MWDL's Best Practices and Standards Working Group are revising and expanding recommendations for assigning metadata in CONTENTdm collections to optimize their discovery in MWDL, as well as other crawlers …

Beyond Research: Opencourseware In The Institutional Repository, Heather Leary, Brett E. Shelton, Marion Jensen

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Presentation given at the 2009 LITA National Forum in Salt Lake City, Utah on archiving OpenCourseWare in the Institutional Repository.

The main function of OpenCourseWare is to provide open access to collections of educational materials used in formal courses. The main function of an Institutional Repository is to collect, preserve, and disseminate intellectual output of an institution. Since OCW is a significant portion of the intellectual output of a university, archiving OCW in an institutions repository seems a perfect marriage of means and opportunity.

Using Digital Primary Sources For Teaching K-12, Cheryl D. Walters, Anne R. Diekama, Sheri Haderlie, Heather Leary

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

USU faculty and northern Utah K-12 teachers and library media specialists talk about how to identify and integrate digital primary sources such as photographs, letters, diaries, interviews and more into the curriculum to create engaging lessons. Digital resources such as the Library of Congress' American Memory, Mountain West Digital Library, and Utah Digital Newspapers, as well as tools for organizing the digital objects will be discussed.

Integrating An Opencourseware And Institutional Repository, Heather Leary, Brett E. Shelton

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This presentation was given at the 2009 Open Education Conference in Vancouver, BC. It shows how and why Utah State University chose to archive their OpenCourseWare. This was done in their Institutional Repository, DigitalCommons@USU. The presentation emphasizes the importance of the Open Education community to work with Librarians.

Logan Historical Newspaper Transcription Project, Cheryl D. Walters, Phyllis Smith

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Presentation given to summer citizens' group in Logan, Utah to tell them about the Logan Historical Newspaper Transcription Project and recruit volunteer transcribers. This project entails manually correcting computer-generated transcriptions to improve discoverability of the full-text digitized versions of the predecessor to today's Herald Journal. Before becoming today's Herald Journal, Logan's newspaper had four different titles: Logan Leader (1879-1882), Utah Journal (1882-1889), Logan Journal (1889-1891), and Journal (1892-1931). This digitized collection begins in 1879 with the Logan Leader and ends in 1898 with the Journal.

Glossary Of Terms For Pre-Industrial Book History, Richard W. Clement

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Glossary of terms on pre-industrial book history, compiled by Rich Clement.

Marginalia No. 26, Merill-Cazier Library

Marginalia

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times … Dean Clement on the economic downturn’s effect on USU & the Library

Books and Buckaroos: USU’s Cowboy Poetry Collection Exhibit” spotlighted

2008 Leonard J. Arrington Writing Contest Awards presented

Digital Commons @ USU: sharing knowledge with the world … Cheryl Walters & Heather Leary on new web portal

New Books … Three new books purchased by the Cazier Library Endowment & the Milton R. Merrill Endowment

Impressive Design Collection donated to Utah State … a gift from Kathryn Caine Wanlass

“Migrant Memoir” … Elva Trevino’s memoir is this year’s selection for …

Leveraging Institutional Repositories To Support Your Institution's Strategic Mission (July), Richard W. Clement

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This presentation was given at the 2009 American Library Association annual conference. It addresses how to improve the chances of a successful Institutional Repository and updates his previous presentation at the 2009 Association for College and Research Libraries conference.

Using Digital Primary Sources For Teaching K-12, Cheryl D. Walters, Heather Leary

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This presentation was the first in a series of three exploring how digitized primary materials being used in educational settings and classroom teaching. It highlights a Utah training program for teachers that encourages integration of digitized primary sources into K-12 teaching.

Sharing Your Finding Aids In Contentdm: Encoded Archival Description (Ead) Files In Mountain West Digital Library, Cheryl D. Walters, Sandra Mcintyre

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Six libraries and archives from the Mountain West Digital Library (MWDL) consortium are using CONTENTdm to open up access to their Special Collections materials via Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids. A custom script extracts 35 fields from a set of finding aids in XML and creates a tab-delimited spreadsheet for uploading them into CONTENTdm using the multiple file import option. Inside the CDM collections, thumbnails and XSLT stylesheets customize displays of finding aids for each library or archive. Automatic "x-links" within the finding aids connect to digitized photographs, correspondence, and other archival materials, where available. A central interface on …

Tapping Utah's Scholarly Works, Cheryl D. Walters, Jeff Belliston, Allyson Mower

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Academic institutions in Utah talk about the institutional repositories (IRs) they have created to provide open access to the intellectual output of their university faculty, staff, and students. Covers platforms (Dspace, CONTENTdm, & Digital Commons), copyright, faculty outreach, collaboration on a statewide IR portal, etc.

Teaching Information Literacy With Authentic Problems: Creating And Using An Online Module, Heather Leary, Wendy Holliday, Anne R. Diekama

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

The American Library Association defines information literacy as a “set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.” Students in an academic setting need to learn how to learn about all kinds of information. Committed to finding innovative ways to teach students information literacy skills, Utah State University’s Library Instruction Program created a free online course to teach these skills. This presentation will explain the course, why and how it was created, the problem based approach using authentic scenarios, the value it adds to library instruction, and how it can be integrated into a curriculum.

Podcasting Folklore, Heather Leary, Trevor Alvord, Randy Williams

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Presentation on podcasting folklore given at the Utah Library Association annual meeting in Sandy, Utah. The presentation gives a general background on podcasting and folklore, the process of creating podcasts and delivering the podcasts on the web.

Leveraging Institutional Repositories To Support Your Institution's Strategic Mission (March), Richard W. Clement

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This presentation was given at the 2009 Association for College and Research Libraries conference during a breakfast presentation. It addresses how to improve the chances of a successful Institutional Repository.

Developing A Review Rubric For Learning Resources In Digital Libraries, Heather Leary, Sarah Giersch, Andrew Walker, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes the development of a review rubric for learning resources in the context of the Instructional Architect (IA), a web-based authoring tool. We describe the motivation for developing a review rubric, the process for creating it by synthesizing the rubrics of other education-related digital libraries, and the results of testing the rubric with teachers. Analysis of usability and reliability indicates that the review rubric influences how teachers design online learning resources.

A Connective Ethnography Of Peer Knowledge Sharing And Diffusion In A Tween Virtual World, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Prior studies have shown how knowledge diffusion occurs in classrooms and structured small groups around assigned tasks yet have not begun to account for widespread knowledge sharing in more native, unstructured group settings found in online games and virtual worlds. In this paper, we describe and analyze how an insider gaming practice spread across a group of tween players ages 9–12 years in an after-school gaming club that simultaneously participated in a virtual world called Whyville.net. In order to understand how this practice proliferated, we followed the club members as they interacted with each other and members of the virtual …

Digital Commons Annual Report: Year One 2008-2009, Heather M. Leary

Digital Commons Reports

This report shows the progress for Utah State University's Digital Commons repository during it's first year, from October 27, 2008 through October 31, 2009.

Gathering Leadership Momentum Across Great Distances: Creating An Online Community Of Practice, Erin Dini-Davis, Danielle Theiss-White

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

At the 2007 Mountain Plains Library Association Leadership (MPLA) Institute, held in New Mexico, USA, eight academic librarians formed an online multi-state, multigenerational community of practice. MPLA is a twelve-state library association within the United States. Using Google Groups™, the members formed an online environment called the MPLA Community of Practice for continuing development of the leadership skills presented at the Institute. These early-career librarians represent diverse educational backgrounds and work in libraries serving varied populations with differing disciplinary emphases. The group meets monthly with each member preparing and facilitating online discussions, complete with personal assessments, topical readings, and questions. …

Societal Transformation And Reference Services In The Academic Library: Theoretical Foundations For Re-Envisioning Reference, Pamela N. Martin

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This paper draws on theories of societal transformation, specifically the information society and postmodernism, to pinpoint challenges and offer concrete advice for re-envisioning reference services in the academic library, including traditional reference work and formal library instruction. Rather than acting as experts to whom all patrons should defer, reference librarians should serve as helpful guides and fellow explorers of the information universe.

Encyclopedic History Of Utah State University, Robert Parson

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

From "A-day" to "Women's Athletics", this encyclopedic history of Utah State University by USU University Archivist Robert Parson covers people, buildings, programs, events, organizations, songs, school colors, traditions, and more.

What Do Students Gain From A Week At Science Camp? Youth Perceptions And The Design Of An Immersive Research-Oriented Astronomy Camp, Deborah A. Fields

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study explored American high school students’ perceptions of the benefits of a summer astronomy camp, emphasizing a full cycle of the research process and how the organization of the camp contributed to those perceptions. Semi-structured interviews with students and staff were used to elicit the specific benefits that campers perceived from their experiences and examine them in relation to the stated goals and strategies of camp staff. Among the perceived benefits that students described were peer relationships, personal autonomy, positive relationships with staff, and deepened science knowledge. These perceived benefits appear to influence the kinds of identities students constructed …